Dealing with retirement-finding a new purpose

March 10, 2015

I stumbled onto Kara Tippetts' blog about her life as a young mom dealing with incurable cancer. I was drawn by her spirit and her focus on God. Her transparency makes her experience even more real. I've read her book The Hardest Peace-expecting grace in life's hard.

This video clip is a trailer that's part of a documentary being produced about her and her reaction to her disease.

My heart is touched by this very real family dealing with some really tough stuff. For me, I see it as a template for how to deal with circumstances that bring you to a wall that seems impossible to get through.

March 03, 2015

If the weather cooperates, this little guy is coming to our house this weekend. This is from an FaceTime chat we had with him on Sunday.

I'm really looking forward to spending time this weekend with my youngest grandson who's nearing nine months old. I can't wait to talk with him, read him some stories, glance at the newspaper and play with all his neat toys.

There are lots of stories I can tell him about our family, about his dad, his grandma and me. If you're in our neighborhood, our house will be the one with the big smile, like the one we had this summer and at Christmas when our older grandson and our granddaughter, along with our daughter and son-in-law visited.

After I publish this, I'm going right over to Amazon to check on selfie poles for my iPhone. I'd like to see if I can take some cool video of the visit.

A NOTE: I just ordered a selfie pole from Amazon which extends to 50" and allows use of my iPhone camera through a bluetooth connection. I paid for it with Discover Card bonus credit.

My temptation is to say, "yeah, Casey Neistat is a pretty young guy who can use iPhone video to effectively tell a story. And I am getting closer to crossing over to 70. How much can I learn?"

I thrive on hearing stories and learning about other people. I enjoy hearing them directly from other people and I love reading them. And, I also feel that I have a few stories inside of me and some which are still happening.

I really need to kick the can down the road on this one with the visit of my grandson and his parents this weekend. Miles is eight months old and I was just outside the delivery room door when he was born. There have to be lots of little stories that can be told about their visit using words and visuals, both still and video.

Here's a couple of thought provoking YouTube videos from filmmaker Neistat that I viewed this morning. They are helpful.

August 22, 2014

I got this plaque while working as a reporter at the Chicago Tribune during time when we landed on the moon in 1969.

I remember getting this replica plaque of the one planted on the moon during the U.S. moon landing and moon walk. I was working as a reporter at the Chicago Tribune where the space feat was celebrated with massive and detailed coverage.

Because it was such a historic moment for the world, I never let go of the plaque. Now my wife and I are sorting through our accumulation of stuff and passing on what we don't want or need. I found this.

Great memorabilia. Is it worth passing on to a grandkid? Is it worth any money?

His column today is about a taxi ride to an airport where he ran into a taxi driver who was not very talkative to the point of being unfriendly.

And then Albom found out what this guy had just experienced. The driver's son was lost and not found in a drowning. The dad was desperate to leave work to go looking for him. But he had to work to support his immigrant family.

By the time he heard the whole story, Albom was at the airport. This is worth a read.

If the mail delivery person or somebody else growls at me today, I'll be slower to judge.